Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder The poet that I have decided to influence me is Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder is an American poet, often associated with the ‘beat generation’. He is an essayist, lecturer, and environmentalist. Many of his poems have nature associated with them, or are at least in the title. A lot of his poetry accesses memory. That is something that I wish to do within my own poetry because I like the way that memories sound. I like the way that Snyder describes them, and I like how memories of one person can be translated to another person, even if they did not have the same experience. Sometimes Snyder puts in an influence of Buddhism into his poetry, which is interesting to me because I previously learned a little bit about Buddhism in my art history class (poets.org). I am intrigued that Gary Snyder was part of the Beat Generation circle of writers. I have learned about people within it such as Allen Ginsburg and Michael McClure. The Beat Generation was a group of American post-World War II writers in the 1950s. “Beat” culture included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern religion and a rejection of materialism (wikipedia). I like the time period and the obsession with difference and living freely. I imagine that being within this movement influenced Gary Snyder very much. I am not sure how much he uses this style, but I really enjoy the line breaks in his poem, Siwashing It Out Once in Suislaw Forest. I imagine that the way he reads it changes because of these spaces in between the words. Or, maybe he does not read it differently at all, and it is just an aesthetic quality that he likes. I also like that his poetry is full of imagery. Little clips of image like “Hands deep in my pockets, Barely able to sleep”, and “Naked under a summer cotton dress” give descriptive vibrant moments of what is happening in his poetry. I really enjoy when something is so descriptive that you can picture it. His two poems that I have picked seem to be about relationships. Sometimes the fact that he uses relationships in poems is how he creates the effect of his poetry. I like very much that his poem titles do not seem to match his poems. They seem to be two different patterns, although I suppose you could picture the poem in a forest. I love that Snyder’s poems do not rhyme. I find many rhyming poems to be cliché unless they were written by very old poets. Prompt: Write a poem dealing with any kind of relationship. Let a moment in history influence you. Use line breaks and decide what they mean. Make sure that it is at least ten lines long. Examples of Gary Snyder’s Work: Siwashing It out Once in Suislaw Forest I slept under rhododendron All night blossoms fell Shivering on a sheet of cardboard Feet stuck in my pack Hands deep in my pockets Barely able to sleep. I remembered when we were in school Sleeping together in a big warm bed We were the youngest lovers When we broke up we were still nineteen Now our friends are married You teach school back east I dont mind living this way Green hills the long blue beach But sometimes sleeping in the open I think back when I had you.